Dry cleaning machine



Oct. 15, 1963 c. E. BEHRENS 3,106,831

DRY CLEANING MACHINE Filed Oct. 5, 1961 17 Sheets-Sheet '1 5g 63 M n 68 6.5

INVENTOR: Cur-ZZSZEEkrenS Oct. 15, 1963 c. E. BEHRENS 3,106,831

DRY CLEANING MACHINE Filed Oct- 3, 1961 17 Sheets-Sheet 2 INV EN TOR.

Oct. 15, 1963 c. E. BEHRENS 3,106,831

DRY CLEANING MACHINE Filed Oct. :5, 1961 17 Sheets-Sheet 5 IN V EN TOR.

Oct. 15, 1963 c. E. BEHRENS DRY CLEANING MACHINE 17 Sheets-Sheet 4 Filed 001'.- 3. 1961 INVENTOR: Curiz'sffiefirens 9 c. E. BEHRENS 3,106,831

DRY CLEANING MACHINE Filed Oct- 5. 1961 17 Sheets-Sheet 6 INV EN TOR.

Oct. 15, 1963 c. E. BEHRENS DRY CLEANING MACHINE 1'7 Sheets-Sheet Filed Oct. 5, 1961 INVENTOR. fur-225E565 71 725 Oct. 15, 1963 c. E. BEHRENS DRY CLEANING MACHINE l7 Sheets-Sheet 8 Filed Oct. 5. 1961 INVENTOR. (uriz'sfr Eek 7-6725 C. E. BEHRENS DRY CLEANING MACHINE 17 Sheets-Sheet 9 Filed Oct. 5, 1961 INVENTOR: Cur-Z25 Z. Bekr'ems Oct. 15, 1963 c. E. BEHRENS DRY CLEANING MACHINE l7 Sheets-Sheet 10 Filed 001.. 3, 1961 INVENTOR: C'urfis EBekrens Oct. 15, 1963 c. E. BEHRENS 3,106,33

DRY CLEANING MACHINE Filed Oct. 3, 1961 17 Sheets-*Sheet 11 INVENTOR. [a r2155 Bekr'ews JQQ M Oct. 15, 1963 c. BEHRENS DRY CLEANING MACHINE 17 Sheets-Sheet 12 Filed Oct. 3, 1961 O 1963 c. E. BEHRENS 3,106,831

DRY CLEANING MACHINE Filed Oct. 3. 1961 1'7 Sheets-Sheet 13 IN VEN TOR.

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United States Patent 3,106,831 DRY CLEANHNG MACHHIE Curtis E. Behrens, Eiiingharn, Ilh, assignor to Borg- Warner (Importation, Qhicago, IlL, a corporation of Illinois, and James D. Robbins, Spring Lake, Mich. Filed Get. 3, E61, Sex. No. 142,632 28 (Ilaims. (lil- 63-12) This invent-ion relates to a dry cleaning system having one or more dry cleaning machines and a cleaning fluid control arrangement therefor.

In conventional dry cleaning of fabrics, it is well known that the fluid supplied to the dry cleaning machine or machines having a closed fluid circuit arrangement, must be not only maintained in a temperature range between certain limits but must also be provided at a flow rate effective to properly clean the fabrics. In the event the temperature of the fluid is too high, the solvent dissolves dyes in the fabrics and causes wrinkling and shrink-age of the fabrics, and graying in white fabrics. In the event the fluid is not supplied to the machine, or at a proper flow rate to and through the machine, it is obvious that inadequate cleaning of the fabrics will occur.

An object of the invention is to provide an improved control arrangement having means operative to sense and indicate undesirable conditions of the cleaning fluid supply for proper cleaning of fabrics.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved control arrangement having means operative to sense and indicate failure of suflicient fluid supply to the machine 'for satisfactory cleaning of fabrics.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved control arrangement having means operative to sense and indicate an undesirable temperature of the cleaning fluid adversely affecting proper cleaning of fabrics.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved control arrangement in which the cleaning fluid is continuously circulated to one or more machines by conduit means and wherein a temperature-responsive device and a fluid supply detecting device are inserted to respectively sense the temperature and supply of the fluid, the devices having switches arranged in parallel in an electric circuit, indicating means being provided having a switch arranged in series relation to each of the switches of the devices so that closure of either of the switches of the devices and the switch of the indicating means will be eiiective to energize the indicating means to notify the operator of the machine or machines that the fluid supply is inadequate, or the temperature of the fluid is too high, for eflicient cleaning of the fabrics.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved control arrangement as described wherein the dry cleaning operation of the machine or machines is controlled by a sequential controller having a switch in the electric circuit operative, upon completion of the dry cleaning operation, to complete the circuit to energize the indicating means.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will appear more clearly from the following specification in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a front elevation of the dry cleaning system embodying the invention, including two combination cleaning and drying maclnnes;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the system illustrating the fluid supply arrangement and including a filter;

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic perspective view of the system shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic rear view of the system, certain parts of the system being shown in changed posi- Patented Oct. 1 5, 1963 "Ice tion from that of FIGS. 1-3 to more clearly illustrate a feature thereof;

FIG. 4A is a sectional view of a portion of the fluid supply system and also showing details of a fluid level device;

FIG. 5 is a vertical sectional view of one of the machines shown in FIG. 1, said section being taken on line 55 of FIG. 1, and illustrating interior parts of the machine including a fluid-containing receptacle, a fabricreceiving basket, and an air-circulating fan, and means for rotatably mounting the basket and fan on the receptacle;

FIG. 6 is a rear elevational view of the machine shown in FIG. 5, illustrating the drive mechanism for basket and fan rotation and including a transmission providing dilferent speeds of rotation of the basket;

FIG. 7 is an enlarged sectional view of the receptacle, basket and fan and mounting means there-for of FIG. 5, said section being taken on line 7-7 of FIG. 6, looking in the direction of the arrows;

'FIG. 8 is a greatly enlarged sectional view of the basket and fan mounting means shown in FIGS. 5 and 7, said section being taken on line 88 of FIG. 6, looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 9 is a sectional view of the transmission shown in FIG. 6, said section being taken on line 99 of FIG. 6;

FIG. 9A is a 'front elevation of the electric drive motor unit including drive pulleys and clutch, said view being taken on line 9A --9A of FIG. 6 and being partly in section to more clearly illustrate the structure thereof;

FIG. 10 is 'a side elevational view of the lower half of the machine including a cleaning fluid storage tank, said view partly being in section to more clearly illustrate the structure thereof;

FIG. 1 1 is a top plan view of the fluid storage tank, taken on line 11-11 of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is an end view, partly in section, of the fluid storage tank;

FIG. 13 is a fragmentary top plan view of the control valve arrangement mounted on the top of the fluid storage tank;

FIG. 13A is a view illustrating an air-venting vacuumbreaker valve shown in FIG. 13;

FIG. 14 is a side elevation of one of the control valves, taken on line 14-14 of FIG. 15;

FIG. 15 is an end view partly in section, of the valve of FIG. 14, said view being taken on line 1515 of 'FIG. 14;

FIG. 16 is a fragmentary sectional view of the valve of FIGS. 14'and 15, said section being taken on line 1616 of FIG. 15;

FIG. 17 is a diagrammatic view of the control valve arrangement shown in FIG. 13;

FIG. 18 is a sectional view of a separating device for difierent fluids, said section being taken on line 18-18 of FIG. 13;

FIG. 19 is a side elevational view of the filter shown in FIG. 2, said view being partly in section to illustrate the filter tube and screen assemblies;

FIG. 20 is a top view of the filter shown in FIG. 19, said view being partly in section to illustrate the tube and screen assemblies;

FIG. 21 is a greatly enlarged vertical sectional view or one of the filter tube and screen assemblies shown in FIGS. 19 and 20;

FIG. 22 is a horizontal sectional view of the filter, said section being taken on line 22-2-2 of FIG. 19, looking in the direction of the arrows;

FIG. 23 is a greatly enlarged vertical sectional view of one of the tube and screen assemblies of the filter, and illustrating a fluid-filtering agent coating and accumula- 3 tion of soil and lint particles, forming a film on the coating, during filtering of the cleaning fluid;

FIG. 24 is a view of the tube and screen assembly of the filter, similar to FIG. 23 but illustrating the coating and film breaking away from the screen during a backwash operation.

FIGS. 25 and 26 are vertical sectional views of one of the two identical air shutters, in the form of poppet valves, shown in FIG. 6 and provided for removal of cleaning fluid fumes from and about the machine at the conclusion of the drying cycle of the dry cleaning machine, FIG. 25 illustrating the closed position of the valve and FIG. 26 illustrating the open position of the valve;

FIG. 27 is a rear view of a portion of the door and the door-mounting front panel of the machine shown in FIG. 6 and illustrating the door-locking mechanism and control means therefor;

FIG. 27A is a horizontal section view of a switchactuatin-g arrangement associated with the door lock mechanism controls, said section bein-g taken on line 27A-27A of FIG. 27;

FIG. 28 is a horizontal sectional view of the doorlocking mechanism of FIG. 27, said section being taken on line 28-28 of FIG. 27;

FIG. 29 is a diagrammatic view of the electrical control arrangement of the dry cleaning machine of FIGS. -28, inclusive, and including sequentially-controlled cam-operated switches;

FIG. 30 is a cam sequence chart illustrating the cleaning and drying cycles of the dry cleaning machine of FIGS. 5-28, inclusive.

Referring now to the drawings, FIGS. 1, 2, 3, and 4 illustrate an improved dry cleaning arrangement particularly, but not nemssarily, adapted for a plurality of combination fabric-cleaning and drying machines, two of which are shown and generally identified as I and II.

The cleaning fluid supply system utilized with the machines has been designed to provide a constant flow of clean, filtered cleaning fluid or solvent, such as perchlorethylene, to each machine during the fabric-cleaning cycle, each machine having an overflow arrangement to expel the soiled solvent from the machine to a solvent storage base tank of the machine for flow of the solvent to a pump and then to a filter for removing soil and other impurities from the solvent and for recirculation of the cleaned solvent. The filtered solvent is supplied to each machine by a manifold providing a metered quantity of cleaning solvent to each machine with a proper solvent level or height being constantly maintained in the machines by the location of the solvent overflow pipe in the machine. This feature is important as each machine includes a fabric-containing basket rotatable about a horizontal axis and designed to permit the fabric to be picked up from the solvent, lifted above the solvent and dropped back a maximum distance into the solvent to provide the best flushing action of the solvent through the fabric and greater dispersion and elimination of the soil from the fabric.

Prior to describing the fluid supply system, reference to made to FIGS. 1 to 4, inclusive, illustrating machines I and H. As each of these machines are identical in construction and operation, it is believed the description of one of the machines (machine I) will be adequate to an understanding of each machine structure and operation. Identical structural parts of machine II are designated with the same numeral as machine I but with the suflix a. The structure of machine I is illustrated in FIGS. 5-17, and 25-28, inclusive, and referring first to FIGS. 5 and 6, the machine comprises a cabinet receiving a cleaning fluid-containing receptacle in the form of an imperforate cylindrical casing or tub 11 having a front wall 12 and a rear wall 13. The tub 11 is supported by a suspension system of the inverted pendulum type generally indicated at A mounted on a base structure B, the suspension system A comprising pivots C and D- attaching the tub to the base structure B for operating movement of the tub, the pivots C and D being directly below the center line of the tub and being connected to the bottom of the tub by a pair of front and rear brackets, one of whch is shown at E. Control springs (not shown) can be located on opposite sides of the tub, and these springs, in conjunction with an hydraulic damper assembly are effective to control the tub movement during rotation of a cylindrical fabric-containing basket or drum 18 at high speed with an unbalanced load of fabric, such as clothes, in the basket. The suspension system arrangement of the tub is more particularly shown and described in US. Patent 2,978,892, issued April 11, 1961. The front wall 12 of the tub 11 is provided with an access opening 14 and a corresponding opening 15 is in the cabinet 10. A flexible corrugated gasket 16 extends between and connects the annular portions of the front walls of the tub and cabinet defining two openings, and the cabinet is provided with a door 17 to close the opening in the tub.

The basket or drum 18 is disposed in the tub 11 for the reception of fabric to be cleaned and dried and the basket is supported by means of a spider 19, forming a portion of the rear wall of the drum, on a sleeve shaft 20 rotatably mounted on the rear Wall 13 of the tube 11 for rotation of the drum 18. A pulley 21, fixedly secured to the shaft 20, is adapted to be rotated by a belt 22 in driven relation to a driving pulley 23 connected to the driven shaft of a two-speed transmission T driven by an electric motor M. Briefly described, the two-speed transmission is controlled by clutches, one of which is self-energizing and the other clutch is solenoid-controlled to provide low speed for slow rotation of the basket or high speed for rapidly rotating or spinning the basket. When the solenoid is deenergized, its clutch is ineffective and power flow is through the self-energizing clutch to provide low speed to tumble the basket during a portion of a cleaning operation and during the drying operation, and when the solenoid is energized, its clutch is operative and the self-energizing clutch becomes inoperative, so that the transmission is conditioned to provide a relatively high speed to rotate the basket, for example, during the extraction of the cleaning fluid from the fabric.

More particularly, and referring to FIGS. 7 and 8, the tub 11 has the radially inner edge of its rear wall 13 connected to two annular support housings 24, 24 by screws 25, the housings 24, 24 having radially inner ends overlapping and confining therebetween an outer race 26 of a ball bearing assembly, with the inner race 27 fixed to the sleeve shaft 20 for rotatably supporting the shaft 20. The front end of the shaft 20 is connected to a hub of the basket provided by the radially inner edge of the rear wall of the basket and two retaining rings 28, 28 connected by screws 29 so that rotation of the shaft 20, by pulley 21 keyed as at 30 to the rear end of the shaft, will rotate the basket.

A blower fan 32 is supported for rotation by the sleeve shaft 20 including a shaft 33 extending through and mounted on needle bearings between the shafts, the front end of the shaft 33 being connected to the hub 34 of the fan 32 by a bolt 35 threaded into the hub and engaging the shaft 33. The rearward end of the shaft 33 extends outwardly of the shaft 20 and receives the hub 36 of a pulley 37 for rotating the fan independently of the basket, the pulley hub 36 being connected to the shaft 33 by a bolt 38 threaded into the hub and engaging the shaft 33.

The basket and fan shaft mounting assemblies also comprise grease seals and thrust washers as clearly evident from an inspection of FIG. 8.

Referring now specifically to FIGS. 6 and 9 for the structure and operation of the drive mechanism including the transmission T, the transmission comprises an input sleeve shaft 40 having a pulley 41 connected by a belt 42 to a pulley 43 driven by the electric motor M. The shaft 40 has an input pinion 44 meshing with a gear 45 fixedto a countershaft 46. A gear 47 is rotatably supported on the countershaft 46 and may be coupled to the countershaft for rotation therewith by a self-energizing clutch spring 48 of well known type, surrounding the countershaft between gears 45 and 17. The countershaft gear 47 meshes with a gear 49 fixed to the output shaft 56 A clutch spring 51 surrounds the input shaft 46 and is positioned between the gear 49 and pinion 44, the clutch spring having a tab 52 at one end of its helically Wound coil engageable with a plunger 53 actuated by a solenoid 54.

In operation, the basket may be slowly rotated to tumble the fabric in the cleaning fluid in the tub. As the solenoid is deenergized, its plunger 53 engages the tab 52 of the clutch spring 51 to prevent operation of the clutch spring 51 to couple the gear 49 and spring 51, and the hub of the gear 49 turns freely within the clutch spring 51. Power flow from the motor is transmitted to the pulley 41 and thereby input shaft 4ti'and input pinion 44. Pinion 44 rotates gear 45 on the countershaft and gear 4-9, keyed to the output shaft 50, to drive pulley 23 to rotate the basket at slow speed.

During the fluid-extraction period of the cleaning cycle, the basket rotates rapidly to centrifuge the fluid from the fabric. For this purpose, the solenoid 54 is energized to remove its plunger 53 from the tab 52 of the clutch spring 51 so that power flow will be from the input shaft 45, input pinion 44, and, as the clutch spring 51 is effective at this time to couple the input pinion 44 and gear 49, gear 49 will be rotated to drive the output shaft 59 to rotate the basket at high speed. It will be apparent, due to the sizes of the input pinion 44 and gears 45, 47, and 49, that the gear 4-9 will drive the gear 47 at such high speed that the clutch spring 4-8 will overrun to prevent power flow through the countershaft and gear 45 to the gear 44.

Referring to FIG. 5, the cylindrical wall of the basket 18 is perforated having a plurality of openings 55 therein. The basket front wall is provided with an opening '56 spaced from the access opening in the front wall 12 of the tub 11. An annular ring 57 is suitably attached to the front wall 12 of the tub 11, a second annular ring 58 is attached to the ring 57 and spaced therefrom by pins or rivets 59. The rear wall of the basket 15 is provided with a pocket P formed by the legs of the spider 19 merging with the cylindrical portion of the basket extending about the rotational axis of the basket, the pocket P having a plurality of openings 54} defined by the legs of the spider 1h. The front of the basket 18 has a cylindrical flange 61 defining the opening 56, and the front wall 12 of the casing 11 has a pair of bearing rollers 62, secured thereto to support the front of the basket.

Air circulating means, in the form of the suction type blower fan 32, is rotatably mounted in a pocket P in the rear wall of the basket 13. The fan 32 has a plurality of curved blades and, as previously described, is driven by a belt and pulley arrangement, the pulley being indicated at 37 and the belt being indicated at as to be driven by the pulley 64 of the electric motor M. Referring to FIGS. 6 and 9A, operation of the fan is controlled by a clutch generally indicated at 55 and including a clutch spring, surrounding the motor drive shaft 66 and located within a housing 67, the spring having an end tab es seated within a recess in the housing, and the housing having an outwardly projecting finger 69 engageable with the end of a plunger 75 of a solenoid 71 so that, when the solenoid is energized to move its plunger from the spring tab 68, the clutch spring is effective to couple the pulley 64 to the drive shaft 66 to effect drive of the pulley, and thereby the fan, by the motor. The solenoid 71 is mounted on a bracket 72 fixed to the motor casing which is mounted on a plate secured to the tub,

as shown in FIG. 6. The solenoid is energized to effect rotation of the fan during the drying operation.

In FIGS. 5 and 6, an annular heater assembly 73 is fixedly secured to the front wall 12 of the tub 11 and includes an aluminum body having embedded annular Calrod type heating coils 74 and 75 suitably connected to a supply of electric current controllable to energize one or the other, or both, heating coils of the heater assembly during the drying operation of the machine. During this drying operation, the basket is rotated slowly to tumble the fabric and the fan is effective to cause the heated air to circulate and flow between the tuband basket and around the basket and through the perforations in the basket to dry the clothes in the basket. The heated air is'then drawnthrough a perforated plate 76 and lint screen S by the fan and through the pocket P of the basket and through the openings 65 defined by the spokes of the basket rear wall spider 19 and into the space between the basket and the rear wall 13 of the tub to be recirculated in the machine. As it is contemplated the machine will be used with a dry cleaning solvent, such as perchlorethylene, vaporizable during the drying operation, a condenser, generally indicated at 77, is positioned adjacent the lower portion of the wall 13 of the tub 11 for condensation of the solvent vapors produced by the drying operation. More particularly, the condenser 77 comprises a plate of arcuate configuration and having upper and lower connected passages 78 and 79 with the upper passage 78 being connected to a water inlet hose 84 the passages 78 and 79 of the condenser conducting the water to a hose 81 leading to a drain exteriorly of the machine. As seen in FIG. 5, the condenser is mounted on the inside of the rear wall 13 of the casing 11 by securing means 82. The hose extends to a valve CV controlled by a solenoid CS which, when energized, opens the valve to permit cold water to enter and flow through the hose 80 into and through the condenser into the hose 81.

Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 6, the drum 11 has the upper portion of its rear wall provided with air shutters in the form of air inlet and exhaust poppet valves, gen erally indicated at 83 and 84, operative to permit air to enter the tub 11 through valve 83 so that all solvent vapors may be flushed and discharged from the machine through the valve 84 at the end of the drying cycle of the machine to be carried away by a ventilating system. The ventilating system includes an air intake opening in wall 13 of the tub 11, through which flow of air into the machine is controlled by valve 83, the air entering and mixing with the solvent vapors and the mixture then being discharged through the valve 84 into an air duct '85 and a plenum duct 86 and through an exhaust duct 87 into the atmosphere exterior of the building. The duct 86 has a blower 88, including an electric motor 89 and a fan 95, for causing air flow into and through the machine and into the ventilating system ducts. During operation of the blower fan, any vapor-laden air about the machine is also drawn through a scavenger duct 91 extending upwardly into the duct 86 for exhaust by the blower fan.

The poppet valves 33 and 8d are identical and, for this reason, a description of the structure and operation of only one of these valves (valve 84) will be made. The valve '84 is shown in detail in FIGS. 6, 25 and 26. This valve comprises valve body 109 having a plate portion 110 with an annular flange 111 fitting within an opening in the tub rear wall 13 and providing a seat for a flexible seal 112 to prevent air flow between the three spaced legs 113 of the valve body from the machine. The seal is normally held engaged with the flange 111 by an acti vating rod 114 slidably mounted within a sleeve 115 secured to the radially inner ends of the legs 113', the sleeve 115 having a surrounding spring 116 compressed between the seal 12 and the valve body. The rod 114 is connected to a link 117 which is connected to one end of a U-shaped lever 118 centrally pivoted at 119 at upstand- 

16. IN A DRY CLEANING MACHINE, A CLEANING FLUID CONTAINER HAVING A FLUID INLET AND A FLUID OUTLET; A CLOSED FLUID CIRCUIT INCLUDING SAID CONTAINER, FLUID SUPPLY MEANS, AND MEANS CONNECTING SAID FLUID SUPPLY MEANS TO SAID INLET OF SAID CONTAINER; A FLUID-OPERABLE ELEMENT IN SAID CIRCUIT AND RESPONSIVE TO THE FLUID SUPPLIED BY SAID FLUID SUPPLY MEANS TO SAID CONTAINER; MEANS OPERABLE BY SAID ELEMENT IN RESPONSE TO A FAILURE OF SAID FLUID SUPPLY MEANS TO PROVIDE A PREDETERMINED QUANTITY OF FLUID TO SAID CONTAINER, INDICATING MEANS; AND MEANS ACTUATING SAID INDICATING 